Welcome to Concession Stand
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Welcome to Concession Stand |
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Concession Stand Commitment
Concession Stand
Representing the OVYL board has
been both a privilege as well as a
challenge. Four plus years ago
there was minimal conflict, regarding
sports, as it related to the OVYL.
There were no other outside
sports affiliations and people
were very supportive of the OVYL in
general. Because of this,
fundraising and commitments by volunteers
were minimal. This is no longer
the case. Exceeding costs in relation
to our facility and it's
maintenance is comparative with any other
organization experiencing some
“growing pains”. The Oley Valley Youth League has provided
exceptional sports facilities for
30+ years. The facility has been, and remains today, a premier
example
of youth centered sports
recreation. Because of the growth of the sports programs,
alternative ways
of attaining funds have always
been considered. Not wanting to burden our families with additional
costs
has always been a top priority.
With this in mind, over the years, we asked for help from families
with fundraising activities and
assistance in our facility run concession stand. Volunteerism has
always
been the driving force behind the
success of the Youth League. In today's busy world, volunteerism
has sometimes become secondary in
our lives and we have had to look for alternatives in making up
the difference. As a result,
fundraising and assistance in the concession stand became somewhat a
priority. Changes have been
made and new ideas are always being considered. We always
welcome
any suggestions that will further
enhance the ongoing success of your community youth league.
Fundraising
in the past has always been mandatory. Participants had the
opportunity to either sell candy
and other items or opt out for a
fee (always tax deductible with forms provided). Fundraising is no
longer mandatory, but we still
need to offset the cost associated with the funding of the OVYL
sporting programs. In general,
this fund must exceed $40,000. Based on total participation
of roughly
700 youth league children this
turns out to about $58 per player. This figure is just to break
even. It pays
for insurance, taxes, utilities,
field maintenance, referee fees, uniforms, etc. We have
exceptionally
high overhead at the OVYL because
we own and maintain the facility. Insurance alone has
become extraordinary. I know many
of the youth league children participate in more than one sport so
this
is a greater hardship, but
please understand, if we don’t have fundraising the OVYL will not
survive.
So, what are we asking for from
you the parent of the child? Well, it is simple. We are asking for
you to
please participate. We will be
providing fundraising forms at the start of the season with a
greater variety
of items to choose from. We will
be providing incentives and prizes to high sellers to promote
fundraising.
We are changing the structure in
hopes that most participate and exceed the minimums required to
continue offering the facility. If
it doesn’t work, we will be forced back to mandatory fundraising in
order
to survive. Yes, it is that
simple. If you don’t have the time for fundraising, we will still
gladly accept
your donation to opt out.
Concession Stand
changes were voted on recently at a board meeting (board meetings
are open to the
public every first Wednesday of
the month). Trying to get people to meet their promised three hours
of commitment time in the
concession stand hasn't worked. So the end result is that we had to
pay employees
to work in order to offset the
volunteerism. OVYL out of pocket expenses to employees doubled and a
lot
of people never fulfilled their
initial commitments. Yes, we lost money. Therefore instead of having
people either opt out, or chase
you down after the fact, we decided to put these fees directly into
our
costing structure. Our cost to an
employee, less benefits, is $28 for three hours. Our cost for
concession
stand is $30 per participant. This
fee will now be paid upfront with registration fees.
There is a way to get this $30
back though. All you have to do is volunteer in the concession stand
for
three hours and we will give you
$30 back immediately following. We will have a large sign up board
sheet outside the concession stand
where people can sign up to work. The board made this change because
it has just become too hard to
chase after people to fulfill initial intended commitments. The $30
cost
is upfront and we expect a good
proportion of people to get there their money back by volunteering
in
the concession stand. For most,
the concession stand commitment was a lot of fun and not a lot of
work
done during one or two practices.
Thank you for taking the time to
read this. Hopefully you understand our situation. As long as we own
the property of the OVYL we will
have costs other organizations will never have. We provide
facilities
for sports year round and take
pride in being the current caretakers of this exceptional facility.
Please consider “doing your part”
and let's continue offering our kids the Oley Valley Youth League
that
has become, and will continue to
be, the greatest sports facility in the area.
Timothy Talarico OVYL President
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